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"I was walking down to my mum’s and a fella appeared out of Sorella Street. He was stumbling over towards me and said, 'have you a feg I can borrow off you?'. I said, 'yes certainly', and took one out of my pocket and gave it to him. As he took it off me he said, ‘what did you say... are you trying to make a c*** out of me?

"I said, 'nothing', and he hit me a dig in the eye, which caused a black eye."

Sean said he then "hit him a few digs back" in defence, before his 6ft attacker "lifted injections out of his right pocket and ran them down my face".

Sean said he will have to take pills and injections for six months

"I didn't know what it was at the time," he added. "But you would know that he was on drugs."

The Milltown Cemetery worker said he then went to Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, where doctors "put me down as high risk" as he said they had to assume they were "dirty needles" and started him on anti-virals.

"I had a good five needles and HIV tablets to take for the next six months," he explained. "And every week I will have to go for an injection and have bloods taken every few weeks."